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by Ron
Haskins and Isabel Sawhill, the Brookings Institution, July 2003
According to a
recent report from the Brookings Institution, entitled “The Future of Head
Start”, expecting a one-year preschool program to overcome the huge school
readiness gap is unrealistic. Additional years may help but would require
substantially more money.
Abstract
Created in 1965
when preschool education was largely an unknown entity, Head Start has
grown steadily over the years while maintaining a high level of
popularity. There are now nearly 19,000 Head Start centers in all fifty
states and the District of Columbia; the program enrolls more than 900,000
students (about 70 percent of eligible four-year-olds and 40 percent of
eligible three-year-olds); and program costs approach $7 billion per year.
Almost since its inception, Head Start has enjoyed a reputation as a
successful program, meaning that most people, including policymakers,
believe it supports child development and helps prepare children for
school. But Head Start, which is financed by direct federal funding of
local projects (bypassing states), is now coming under increasing scrutiny
because some critics believe it does an inadequate job of preparing
children for school. The Bush administration is proposing that control of
Head Start be turned over to state governments that promise to meet a
series of conditions regarding school preparation, comprehensive services,
and public accountability. The purpose of this brief is to review the
arguments for and against giving greater control of Head Start to the
states and to make recommendations about Head Start policy.
Visit
http://www.brookings.edu/es/research/projects/wrb/publications/pb/pb27.htm
to continue reading this brief. You can also download the entire
policy brief in PDF (size=231K) at
http://www.brookings.edu/dybdocroot/es/wrb/publications/pb/pb27.pdf.
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